Question to youngsters: Any great pianist in the making here ?

[quasimodo]

I'm very curious to know if among the young people posting here, some have the highest ambitions to make a piano-carreer ?

Obviously you don't become a concert pianist if it's not a decision you make rather early, perhaps with your parents, so is someone in this case ? And how is it going ? At which stage are you ?

[Ben D.]

I do! I would love to be a concert pianist.  I'm only 13, so it's not like I'm totally set on that for my career.  It would definitely be my first choice but I'm too young to be choosing careers.  I am pretty advanced for my age; I'm finishing off Brahms' Rhapsody in G Minor (I think Op. 79, No. 2?) and Debussy's Mouvement from Images 1 or 2, I forget... I think 2... I competed with the Rachmaninoff G Minor Prelude (Op. 23, No. 5) and Khatchaturian's Toccata last year, and for next year I want to work on either the 1st Movement of the Waldstein or Debussy's Toccata (the one from Pour le Piano).

To any concert pianists here: how good were you when you were 13? Just wondering  .

[pianobabe56]

I would absolutely love to be a concert pianist, but I don't think I'm good enough, so hey. I'll probably teach piano for the rest of my life- another thing I absolutely love to do! Kudos, Ben!

[abe]

Heh, sometimes I day-dream about being one in the future. I even wrote about my being a concert pianist in a platonic reality essay I had to write. But I am not good enough, and my strength lies in academics, so I guess I won't be. I just hope I have time to continue playing and taking lessons through college.

[Inscape]

I don't know about being a concert pianist, but I would really like to be a composer.  I've written several small piano pieces and won a few state competitions and I'm in the process of writing a full 4 movement string quartet (on movement 2 right now) right now.  I also have a lot of piano experience but have only played since I was 12, and know that a lot concert pianists have already started on their career by then.  But for composers (especially composers in the 20th century) this is different.  There are very few "composer prodigies" and most don't break out until will into their 20s.  So that would leave a lot of time for me to grow and expand my composition skills and composition portfolio.

But I definately won't stop with my piano studies anytime soon.  I'm working on Rachmaninoff's 2nd concerto and Liszt's Spanish Rhapsody right now, as well as a few other smaller pieces.  If anything, I can at least teach piano or composition if my dreams don't work out.

Oh and another sidenote, it seems that there is much, much less competition in composition than in piano.  I can name several highly talented young pianists in my state alone, but talented composers are scarce.  And plus, it's so much less nerve racking to compete in a composition competition than a performance competition although it takes months to find out the results.

[lostinidlewonder]

Im 23 which i guess is still a youngster ahaha

i went through a lot of stages before i got where i am now in my musical career. It is interesting though since my own journey has been very unorthodox, i was an engineer first then changed to music.

My first step was simply, hiring a concert hall and promoting myself to death. 3 months of promotion, radio, newspaper, public appearances(at rotary clubs, retirement villiages etc etc). I did my first concert with a sell out hall, and made 10grand Australian dollars in the process (most i ever made for one concert). I never turned back after that. Then i did lots of teaching since after concerts i would meet with the audience and talk heaps about music. Lots of people became my students and my teacher at the same time!

Since i never studied music teaching at a university all my experience in teaching comes from teaching. At the moment now i have in front of me decisions to become a travelling musician or maintain my focus on education and peformances around my state (West Australia).

It is really interesting, before i started a music career i thought, the only way you can make a living is by becoming famous and playing international competitions and concerts. This isnt really the reality. I know a great deal more musicians who make a living not doing anything on a HUGE scale. And they make a very good living.

I do lots of smaller concerts which bring in maybe 1k the night, but you get to meet a lot of interesting people.

As for the question of greatness. what is that? To be the best technically and expressively? i can tell you all now from my experience so far, which isnt that great but still i have seen the how this music industry works. People, the general public, who sit and listen to your concert want to be entertained. That is the first thing, you have to be an entertainer, be quick witted on stage, ad lib, crack jokes, bring the music to life in an interesting way. But at the same time you have to satisfy musical critics which you must invite to your concerts for free of course

I have played concerts which where totally scattered, one piece from one composer then change. I was totally burned by the critics who said it was so scattered but still entertaining and enjoyable. I got even people come up to afterwards and say you where better than Helfgott (as if that is a task?) eheh. Some go crazy and say you are better than some other international pianist and i just laugh.

It is the entertainment value whcih sells you, and those that think if you master your technique and expresion you will go far, you are very mistaken. Well you have to be the very very very best then for technique and expression to take you anywhere. I never compare myself to other musicians, there is utterly no use. I think it is good to measure your musical ability and effect on people by the number of tickets you sell, and how many people actualy come back to listen to you. If no one likes how you do a concert or how you talk or how you entertain, then it doesnt matter how well you play.

thats what me thinks anyways

[dr1keyz]

I AM a great pianist in the making and I do hope to continue on this road as a career. I am only 20 years and I am still in college but I am a classical/Jazz pianist. I have never worked a job before in my life because my piano abilities have bought me new cars and houses and I really dont think I will ever be able to do anything else..lol I dont want to do the classical thing as a living but I want to play and tour the world playing my own music.

[Glissando]

I am 16, I plan on studying piano in college and teaching & performing when I 'grow up'. I'm neither really close to being as good as I want to be, nor really far away. I feel like I'm really really close sometimes, and then listen to Yundi Li's Liszt CD, and then I'm humbled into reality again.
I got a really big kick out of explaining to this sweet kid I know why you have to use the right fingering and why you have to be careful with your wrist position. Her teacher had never told her *why* she had to do these things, she just said 'do it.' The girl was so interested and happy to know the 'whys.' I want to be the kind of teacher who will explain things to the kids and enjoy doing it.
So no, probably I won't be 'great' in the sense of famous rich world-wide touring artist, but I hope to be great in a different way.

[chopinguy]

Right now I'm 15 and have been playing the piano for 8 years, but I'm really torn between music and science.  I want to eventually have careers in both.  How hard is it to maintain a life where you go to your job in the morning, and when you get home you practice and prepare for a concert that might be coming up?

In order to be at least locally known, do you need to devote your entire life to piano? (If I had more than one life to live, that would solve everything!)

[minimozart007]

I don't know if I'm a great pianist in the making, but I try.  I'm 14 and I've been playing sice I was 9.  I progressed so fast with my first teacher in 2 years that I was even better than her.  Then, I was inivted to go to a saturday morning colleg-prep conservatory (Tuition-Free) at IUPUI.  Right now I'm working on the Bach D minor
concerto, the Mozart K. 332 Sonata, and Chopin's Op. 25, No. 2 Etude.